A Second Chance for a Long & Healthy Life: A Mr. Mom's Gastric Bypass Story

Surgery's Trade-Offs

Before I realized how desperately I needed a surgical means of helping with weight-loss, I was worried how changing my body's ability to eat (and enjoy) food would effect my life-- after all, I was a "foodie", loving the preparation, serving and consumption of all things edible. What would the quality of my new post-operative life be if I couldn't eat what I wanted, when I wanted and how often I wanted?

I realized that I would no longer be able to enjoy a big ice cream sundae, but I knew thatfor the past few years, I was too embarrassed to order such a big dessert and, anyway, was too big for the chairs in most ice cream shoppes.

I figured that I wouldn't be able to soothe myself back to sleep by gorging on late-night snacks, but I knew that by losing my weight, I would no longer be woken up by my sleep apnea and significant joint pain so I wouldn't need to worry about eating myself back to sleep.

I had the painful realization that, after the surgery, I would never be able to return to eating normally again, but then I realized that I had probably never eaten normally in the first place (or else why would I be contemplating gastric bypass surgery for my out-of-control weight problem?).

I thought that I wouldn't be able to go to a restaurant and enjoy a big meal, but I knew that going out to eat was fraught with anxiety for me as I didn't fit in booths, couldn't sit in a chair that had arms and was always ashamed to order the dishes that I really wanted anyway because of my size.

I thought that I would somehow not be able to enjoy cooking for company and having dinner parties, but I knew that I was in such terrible shape that I was exhausted after cooking, that my enjoyment of the food I had prepared was limited by my voracious eating of it and and that I would often fall asleep long before our company left because I would have eaten so much.

I was worried that, if I lost all the weight that I needed to, I would need to have still more surgery to remove all that excess skin, but I knew that I was already walking around with all that excess skin (it was just filled with fat cells) and that at the rate I was going, I was probably going to need cardiac surgery for the heart that I was surely damaging each day that I weighed over 500 pounds.

I thought that I would miss being able to only buy clothes (and paying triple for them) at a big and tall shop . . . wait, I don't miss that!

I thought that the local fast food restaurants would have to lay-off many of the their drive-thru employees if I was no longer visiting them three times a day . . . . well, nothing is perfect